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(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos Henk Seppen & Robert Bos) Six exhibition-games played; Amsterdam Pirates adds two veteran-pitchers Nederlands AMSTERDAM / BUSSUM / HEEMSTEDE / HEERHUGOWAARD / ROTTERDAM (Neth.) / COLOGNE (Germany) - Eight of the nine Dutch big league-teams played exhibition games on Saturday-afternoon (March 19). Silicon Storks was the lone team that didn't play. For the third consecutive week, the weather conditions were very acceptable and so, all games could be played. But there was a cool breeze at the sites in Heemstede and Heerhugowaard. Three teams played an international game today. Reigning champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates played at home against Hoboken Pioneers from Belgium and won 10-4. Last week, the Amsterdam-team added two veteran righthanded pitchers. Scroll down to learn more. HCAW hosted Bonn Capitals from Germany and their game ended with a 3-3 score. Pirates has no game scheduled for Sunday, while HCAW again will play against the team from Bonn. Hoofddorp Pioniers is abroad this weekend, as it traveled to Cologne (Germany). There, the team played against Cologne Cardinals, which also will be the opponent on Sunday. A recap of these games will be added on Sunday. In other games today... Curaçao Neptunus lost 2-1 at home against Twins Oosterhout, which will be the home-team on Sunday. RCH/Pinguïns and DSS/Kinheim met in Heemstede. There, DSS/Kinheim won 14-9. They will meet again on Sunday in Haarlem. Quick Amersfoort played against the combination-team of The Herons and Alcmaria Victrix, which will play in the First Division this year. At the site of The Herons in Heerhugowaard, Quick won 8-0. The teams will play in Amersfoort on Sunday. (March 19)

At Bussum, HCAW played at home against Bonn Capitals from Germany in a 9-inning game that ended with a 3-3 score. Bonn made its second trip to the Netherlands in three weeks. First, the German team played in Hoofddorp against both the main-squad and second team of Hoofddorp Pioniers. Last weekend, Pioniers traveled to Bonn where it played two games. Coming weekend, Bonn hosts Curaçao Neptunus. HCAW was outhit 8-3 by Bonn, whose pitchers struckout 13 of the Bussum-batters. Four HCAW-pitchers struckout nine batters of the German opponent. Bonn opened the score in the top of the first inning off of HCAW-starter Jim Ploeger. The lefthander gave up lead-off singles to Eric Brenk and Danny Sanchez, which gave the team runners on first and third base. Brenk then scored when next batter Vincent Ahrens grounded in a double play. In the second inning, Ploeger again was supported with a double play, then struckout two batters in the third. After new pitcher Gio de Graauw threw a scoreless fourth, HCAW scored twice in its fourth at bat off of Bonn-starter Noah Lindt, who encountered no problems in the first three innings. He retired the first six batters, then gave up a lead-off single to Julian Goins in the third. Goins stole second and third base, but then stranded. In the bottom of the fourth, HCAW got its first four batters on base. Lead-off hitter Jeandro Tromp struckout, but reached on a wild pitch. Hereafter, the bases got loaded when Quintin de Cuba singled and Kevin Dirksen was hit by a pitch. Moments later, Tromp scored the tying run when Max Draijer walked and HCAW took a 2-1 lead via a sacrifice fly by Bob van der Meer. HCAW left three runners behind, but had taken the lead. There were some baserunners, but not runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh inning. After Gio de Graauw had allowed only one baserunner in the three innings he threw, Jasper Elfrink took over in the seventh. He saw Bonn leave runners behind on first and third base, but then gave up two unearned runs in the eighth. A lead-off grounder by Eric Brenk ended in a 2-base throwing error and he scored the tying run on a following double by Danny Sanchez. With two outs, Sanchez scored the go-ahead run on a single by Justus Recki. In the top of the ninth, rookie Stijn van der Schaaf took the mound for HCAW and retired the side. After having scored twice in the fourth inning, HCAW was also kept scoreless. The team was retired in order by reliever Paul Schmitz in the fifth, then left two runners behind in the next at bat. In the seventh, lead-off hitter Nathan Berkel was hit by a pitch. With one out, he stole second base, but then was eliminated after all after trying to advance to third base after overrunning second base. In the eighth, HCAW was trailing for the second time and left a runner behind on first base off of new pitcher Eric Brenk. But the Bussum-team then came alongside in the bottom of the ninth. Julian Goins led off with a single and stole second base. With one out, he scored on a single by Nathan Berkel. He was then forced out hereafter on a grounder by Brendly Martina, who last season played for Silicon Storks and led the league in stolen bases. Martina went on to stole second base, advanced on a throwing error, but stranded on third base, as the inning and the game ended with a strikeout.

HCAW - Bonn Capitals 3-3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Bonn Capitals 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 - 3 8 2 HCAW 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 - 3 3 2 pitchers Bonn Capitals inn. SO BB H R ER Noah Lindt 4 5 2 2 2 2 Paul Schmitz 3 4 - - - - Eric Brenk, BS 2 4 2 1 1 1 pitchers HCAW inn. SO BB H R ER Jim Ploeger 3 4 2 3 1 1 Gio de Graauw 3 2 1 1 - - Jasper Elfrink, BS 2 2 - 4 2 - Stijn van der Schaaf 1 1 - - - - Umpires: HP-Roy van de Wateringen, 1B-Jeroen Rekveld. Official Scorers-Jeanette van Drunen, Rob Schuurman, Stefan Slinger, Sten Wessel. Public Address Announcer-None. Scoreboard Operator-Nico van de Luitgaren. Starting Time-2:00 PM. Time Played-2:32 hrs. Site-Rob Hoffmann Vallei, Sportpark Zanderijweg, Bussum. Game Notes: Exhibition game.

...Jurrian Koks & Martin Kram... (© Photos: Henk Seppen (Koks) & Robert Bos (Kram)) In Amsterdam, reigning champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates today played against Hoboken Pioneers from Belgium and recorded a 10-4 victory in an 8-inning game. On Friday-evening, Pirates was to play against its second team, but that game was dropped from the schedule, as the team is currently somewhat short of available pitchers. Instead, the team played an intersquad-game during its practice-session on Thursday-evening. Today, Pirates faced a quick 4-0 deficit, as the Belgian opponent rallied for four runs in the first at bat off of starter Donny Breek. Hereafter, Hoboken was kept scoreless by three relievers. With two outs in the second inning, lefthander Nelmerson Angela took over and threw 3 1/3 fine innings. In the sixth inning, Connor Prins took the mound for Pirates, then newcomer Martin Kram pitched a 6-out eighth and final inning. Kram is one of two veteran righthanded pitchers that were added to the Pirates-roster last weekend, the other being Jurrian Koks. Due to some injured pitchers and a yet incomplete roster, Amsterdam Pirates added these two pitchers. Kram last pitched in the big league in 2020 when he made two appearances for Storks and threw ten innings. He also pitched for the team of The Hague in 2019. Back then, he was a teammate of Koks, who then had the best ERA of the pitching-staff of Storks and won five games. Both righthanders also pitched for Storks in 2018 and led the team in best ERA, innings pitched and strikeouts. Koks is no stranger to Amsterdam Pirates, as he pitched four seasons for the team in 2011-2014. More additions to the team are expected in the coming weeks, including Shairon Martis, who will arrive in Amsterdam before the start of the season. Shortly thereafter, short stop Sharlon Schoop and catcher Sicnarf Loopstok also will re-join Pirates. Trailing 4-0, Pirates got one run back in its first at bat off of Hoboken-starter (and former Neptunus-pitcher) Kenny Van Den Branden, then added two runs in the second inning. From that moment on, the home-team turned the game around and took more distance. Roelie Henrique and Delano Selassa both had three basehits for Pirates. In Rotterdam, vice-champion Curaçao Neptunus played an 8-inning game against Twins Oosterhout and lost 2-1. The game was played on Field 2 of the Neptunus-complex, as the main-field in the stadium is currently unplayable, as a new drainage is installed. Starting pitchers Juan Carlos Sulbaran (Neptunus) and Koen Postelmans (Twins) gave up no runs. Last season, Sulbaran won the Dutch Championship-title while playing for L&D Amsterdam Pirates. Twins then opened the score in the top of the fifth inning off of new pitcher Sem Nijman, who is a pitcher of the second team (Tridents). The run was scored on a sacrifice fly by Shurman Marlin. Twins added a run in the sixth when Jason Halman scored on a single by Railison Bentura. Thereafter, Kevin Kelly threw two scoreless innings for Neptunus. Neptunus scored its lone run in the bottom of the sixth off of Finn Kops, who relieved Postelmans in the fifth. Raydley Legito then walked and scored on a single by Roger Bernadina, who played in the professional league in Nicaragua in the winter months. Legito also played for Pirates last year. With a 2-1 lead, Ruben van de Koppel and Raf Cocu each threw a scoreless inning for Twins. At Heemstede, RCH/Pinguïns and DSS/Kinheim played a game that lasted some three hours and was played under cold conditions, as chilly breeze was coming from the sea. DSS/Kinheim won 14-9. Three pitchers took the mound for DSS/Kinheim. Nick Boxelaar and Rick Rizvić both threw four innings, then Bas Timmer threw the ninth inning. Five players threw for RCH/Pinguïns, who walked several batters. Finn Kragt started and threw two innings, then Nick Andringa ran into problems and threw 2/3 inning. Thereafter, Renaigel Martis (2 1/3 inning) and Joel Martis (2 innings) pitched for the team from Heemstede. Both played for Silicon Storks last season. Short stop Jesse Aussems then pitched the eighth inning for the home-team. New third baseman Dilsany Melfor was 4-for-5 for RCH/Pinguïns, including three doubles, and batted in three runs. Recently, RCH/Pinguïns expanded its coaching-staff. After last season, Nick Heij became the new Head Coach, but no other coaches were known at that time. For coming season, Heij will be assisted by Marco Wels, who last season was one of the coaches of Quick Amersfoort. Jeremi van den Berg and Ewout Bos will share the duties as Pitching Coach. At Heerhugowaard, Quick Amersfoort shutout The Herons/Alcmaria Victrix 8-0 in a 9-inning game that also was played under some cold conditions. Quick Amersfoort got some productive at bats and recorded several basehits, including some doubles. With the offensive production, the team supported their five pitchers who threw in today's game. Jan-Willem Geerts started and was followed by Jhan Rifaela, Jack Wagner, Deef van Leersum and Jasper Popken.

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